The present invention mainly relates to absorbent articles used in a sanitary napkin, a parity liner, an incontinence pad, a medical pad and a personal hygiene item, and particularly relates to absorbent articles in which, even when an absorber is relatively thin, the absorber is unlikely to be wrinkled, and side leakage is unlikely to occur.
Conventionally, as the absorbent article, an absorbent article is known in which an absorber formed of cellulose wadding (where high water-absorbent resin is mixed) such as pulverized pulp is interposed between a liquid-impermeable back sheet such as a polyethylene sheet or a polyethylene sheet laminate non-woven fabric and a liquid-permeable surface sheet such as a non-woven fabric or a liquid-permeable plastic sheet.
In recent years, disadvantageously, in the case of a relatively bulky absorbent article, for example, it has been inconvenient to carry it around or it has been difficult to store, and since making physical distribution more efficient, resource saving and the like are required, a thin absorbent article in which the thickness of an absorber in a body fluid discharge site is 8 mm or less and is preferably 5 mm or less tends to be desired.
However, it is conventionally known that disadvantageously when the thickness of an absorber is reduced, the absorber is wrinkled due to leg pressure and the like, and thus side leakage is more likely to occur. As a technology for preventing such a wrinkle or the like, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-125485 that will be described below discloses an absorbent article in which in at least an excretory part opposite portion of an absorbent main body, a pair of side portions of an absorber are compressed more than a width direction center portion located between the pair of side portions, and thus a pair of highly compressed areas are formed and the highly compressed areas are formed up to a width direction outer end portion of the absorber and are not formed up to longitudinal direction front/back end portions of the absorber.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-136972 that will be described below discloses an absorbent article in which in both side portions of a surface sheet and an absorber in an excretory part region, a pair of inside grooves curved in a convex shape outwardly in a width direction in plan view are formed, and in the surface sheet and the absorber outside in the width direction in each of the pair of inside grooves, a pair of outside grooves curved in a convex shape outwardly in the width direction in plan view are formed.